Monday, May 19, 2014

"Entrance Exams"

Walking out into the living room wearing pajamas
featuring Bugs Bunny, a cartoon icon, made Kellie’s mother smile. Almost an
adult, her daughter was, yet still so much a little girl.

“You
have a message from Starfleet, Kel,” she told her.

Kellie
Petersen paused mid-stretch, her yawning mouth quickly frozen into a large O.

“When
did it come?” she asked, racing over to the communications terminal in the
living room. “You should have woken me!”

“Honey,
you’ve been up all night for weeks studying for those exams,” her mother
replied. “I thought you could use the rest.”

She
imagined Kellie rolling her eyes as she brought the message up. It was a very
brief message from an Admiral Forrest, asking Kellie to report to Starfleet
Headquarters at her earliest convenience.

Kellie
jumped up faster than Li-Na Petersen had ever seen her child move. She left the
living room and was back inside of ten minutes, dressed in a pair of slacks and
a blouse, her hair tied back in a low ponytail.

“Do I
look okay?” she asked anxiously.

Li-Na
smiled. Her daughter was such an exquisite blending of her own Chinese origin
and her father Klein’s Danish characteristics; she looked extraordinary in
anything she wore. She would even look beautiful in a Starfleet uniform.

“You
look great, sweetheart. Would you like me to go with you?”

Kellie
took a deep breath to steady herself. “No, that’s okay. I know you have things
to do today. But I would appreciate a lift to the transport station. Hopefully
I can get an open seat on the next shuttle for San Francisco.

“Oh,
Mom, I can hardly believe it—in just a couple of hours I’ll officially be a
Starfleet cadet!”

*****

“What?”

Kellie
could hardly process what she’d just heard. She wouldn’t be entering the
Academy in the fall as she’d hoped.

As
she’d thought on her way here.

“I’m
very sorry to disappoint you, Miss Petersen,” continued Admiral Maxwell
Forrest. “But Starfleet is not, at this time, taking anyone under the age of
eighteen into the Academy.”

Kellie
shook her head. “But I’ll be eighteen in December! I’m a high school graduate,
and I’ve already taken the entrance exam—and passed it, I should point
out.”

“You’ve
actually stated both reasons for why you won’t be admitted at this time,”
Forrest told her. “Academy cadets must reach their eighteenth birthday on or
before September 1st, and your birthday falls at the end of
December. Not only that, but the officer who supervised your exam group should
not have even allowed you to take the exam, for that very reason.”

Kellie
felt like crying, but knew she didn’t dare. She was already being shafted for
her age, and she didn’t want to make Forrest think she couldn’t act like the
adult she was professing to be.

Still,
she couldn’t help a resigned, “It’s not fair.”

Forrest,
for his part, nodded in agreement. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Miss Petersen.
I wish things could be different, because you received one of the highest exam
scores in your group.”

Smiling
half-heartedly, she replied, “And I suppose there’s no ‘late entry’ program?
I’d be willing to take extra classes, and work through the summer.”

Forrest
contained a smile of amusement. This girl was determined to join Starfleet.

“As
you have already stated, you did pass the entrance exam, so you’re
already guaranteed a spot in next year’s class,” he said slowly. “Are you sure
you don’t want to simply wait?”

Kellie
shook her head. “No sir. I’ve been looking forward to joining Starfleet my
whole life, and I never thought when my birthday fell would be a problem. I
swear to you, if there’s any way for me to get in before then, I’ll do whatever
it takes.”

He
had to admire her tenacity. She wasn’t going to give up without a fight. “Tell
you what: I’ll talk to the Academy commandant and my superiors at Command, see
what they say.”

Her
smile grew wide. “Thank you, Admiral Forrest!”

Forrest
looked at her pointedly, holding the young woman’s gaze. “That’s not a
guarantee the circumstances will change, Miss Petersen. If they choose to uphold
the regulations, you’ll have to be content with entering the academy with next
year’s class.”

It
was another two days before Kellie heard from Forrest—two days in which she
drove both of her parents and everyone who would listen to her to the brink of
insanity. She could not talk or think of anything else.

When
finally the call came, Kellie was sitting in her room, trying to listen to some
music, but unable to maintain an interest in anything for too long.

Her
father peeked into her room just before dinner, saying, “Kellie, you have a
call. It’s Admiral Forrest.”

Kellie
leapt off the bed and past her father almost before he could move out of her
way. She zipped past her mother and threw herself into the seat at the desk,
where their communications equipment was set up.

“This
class or next?” she said without saying hello.

Forrest’s
countenance was stern. “You’ll have to learn a sense of decorum if you’re going
to be a Starfleet officer, Cadet.”

Forrest
nodded. Then he smiled. “It would seem that your impassioned plea has not
fallen on deaf ears. You will be allowed to join the class of 2150 in January—providing,
of course, that you uphold your end of the deal. You’ll take night classes
and/or tutoring as well as your regular schedule; and you’ll likely have to
make up some classes next summer. If you haven’t caught up by then, you’ll
continue in the same manner until you do. That won’t leave you much time for a
social life, Miss Petersen, and I still remember how much young people such as
yourself crave one.”

Not
that she would have much of one after she graduated, but who cared?! She was
going to Starfleet Academy!

“Sir,
you won’t regret this. I promise you that.”

Four years later…

“For
someone who scored one of the highest marks in her test group on the entrance
exam, I sure didn’t finish that great.”

Kellie
was looking at her academy transcript. She had finished 97th out of
a class of 555. Though neither her parents nor her friends were disappointed in
her, she felt like she had missed something.

“Oh,
I wouldn’t say that, Ensign. There may be ninety-six other young men and women
who finished higher in your class than you, but think of it this way: You
finished higher than four hundred fifty-eight.”

Kellie
turned with a smile to find Admiral Forrest behind her. Quite by accident, he
had become something of a mentor to her over the last three and a half years.
Four, if she counted from when they’d first met.

She
raised her hand in a crisp salute, which he returned, and then he reached down
and embraced her warmly.

“Congratulations,
Kellie. Though I suppose I should be calling you Ensign Petersen now,” the
admiral said.

Kellie
smiled. “Perhaps you should. You are the one who first instructed me on
decorum.”

The
admiral nodded. “That’s right… which is why I took the liberty of presenting a
copy of your thesis to Jonathan Archer, who will be the captain of the first
warp-5 vessel, Enterprise. She launches next year, you know, and will
have a transporter on board.”

Kellie
could barely move. She could barely breathe, let alone speak aloud the thoughts
that had begun racing through her mind. She didn’t want to assume that what her
mind and heart were telling her was what Admiral Forrest was telling her.

“S-Sir?”
she stammered.

Forrest
could contain himself no longer, and smiled. “I’ve known Jonathan a long time,
Kellie. He’s a good man and a fine officer. Now, it’s not a guarantee he’ll
take you on, but he was interested enough in your thesis to ask me to convey an
invitation for an interview.”

Kellie’s
eyes widened, and her smile stretched from ear to ear. She had just graduated
from the academy, and already she might have an assignment—on the first warp-5
ship, no less! This was incredible!

How
did she ever get so lucky?

“Oh
my God! Thank you, Admiral Forrest!”

She
threw her arms around him again, squeezed tightly, and drew back. Clearing her
throat, she drew herself up to attention and saluted once more. “Thank you,
sir.”

Forrest
returned the salute with a smile.

*****

Kellie
was led by another ensign, one with a few years in service she was sure, to the
captain’s office on the Enterprise. She kept taking deep, slow breaths,
trying her best to remain calm. Of course she was nervous—who wouldn’t be on a job
interview?

Then
again, this was no ordinary interview. This interview could very well
determine the direction of her entire career.

“Come
in.”

The
ensign had rung the chime, and after hearing his captain’s voice, he left.
Kellie keyed the door open and walked in.

Jonathan
Archer was busy with what once had been called ‘paperwork.’ He was reading one
report, signing off on it, and then reading another. He’d been going at it for
hours, wondering if he would be done before the launch next year. The interview
he had scheduled was a welcome break from the monotony.

Looking
up, the captain smiled. “Welcome aboard, Ensign. How do you like her so far?”

Archer
indicated she sit across from him, then returned to the chair behind his desk.
“I have to say, I was impressed with the thesis Admiral Forrest showed me.
You’re very bright, Ensign.”

“Thank
you, Captain,” Kellie said, trying not to blush. “I’ve been studying machines,
taking them apart and putting them back together, ever since I can remember.
When I heard about the Vulcans’ transporters, I got my hands on everything I
could find in print.”

She
pretended not to notice the subtle shift in his features when she mentioned the
Vulcans, and suspected he wasn’t exactly fond of them.

“Anyway,
sir, I’ve been fascinated by the technology since I first heard of it, and once
I found out we’d finally developed our own, I knew I had my thesis subject, for
when I entered the Academy.”

Archer
had already relaxed from his brief lapse in expression. He smiled. “From
reading your thesis, I gather you know almost as much as my chief engineer
does—if not more.”

“You
have an engineer already, sir?” she asked.

Archer
chuckled. “Not to diminish your respect for authority figures, Ensign, but Trip
is actually the only officer I have on my senior staff right now.”

Kellie
started to laugh, then frowned. “Trip, sir?”

Archer
laughed fully. “That’s just what his friends call him. Commander Tucker’s been
one of mine for years.”

At
that moment, the door chime sounded again, and Archer stood. Kellie followed
suit as he said, “In fact that should be him. I wanted the two of you to meet;
with him being the engineer, he’d be asking all the pertinent engineering questions.”

The
captain himself walked over to the door and keyed it open, inviting in another
man close to his age. They smiled at one another, and then both men looked at
her.

Kellie
felt the air leave her lungs. Charles Tucker wasn’t the handsomest man she had
ever met, nor even the tallest. Truth be told, his features were rather plain,
though not unpleasant. And, as was blatantly obvious, he was a lot older than
she. But in the instant their eyes met, when he smiled, she could think only
one thought:

He’s
beautiful.

“So,”
began Tucker, “is this the one you told me about?”

“She
is. Commander Charles Tucker, may I introduce you to Ensign Kellie Petersen.”

Kellie
shook herself mentally, and took the engineer’s outstretched hand. It was so
much larger than her own, and she could feel calluses on his palm.

Of
course, a man who works with his hands would have them, she thought,
then scolded herself. She had to stop this, and stop it now. Commander Tucker
was older, and an officer, and if she were very lucky, he would soon be her
department head. She should not, could not, let herself become attracted
to him. For goodness' sake, she had just met him!

“Why don’t
we all sit down,” said Archer.

Kellie
returned to the seat she’d just vacated, thankful for the chance to collect her
thoughts.

“So,
Ensign,” said Tucker. “You have a pretty good understanding of the new
transporter system. Do you really think it will become the standard mode of
transport in the future?”

Here
was something she could work with, something that would distract her mind
from…distracting thoughts.

Kellie
cleared her throat. “Well, sir, I do. I mean, of course we’ll still use ships
like Enterprise, and shuttlecraft. But once we work out the kinks in the
system, figure out how to fine-tune the annular confinement beam and set the
pattern buffers for humanoid life, I really do believe that going from ship to
ship, or ship to shore, will be done mostly with the transporter system. It’s
going to become one of the most popular modern conveniences.”

Both
Tucker and Archer laughed, and the captain looked at his friend, saying, “Can
you imagine it, Trip? The transporter becoming a modern convenience?”

“Yeah.
Right alongside my pan-fried catfish.”

They
laughed again, and then Tucker returned his attention to Kellie. “We know you
know a lot about transporters. And the captain here has told me you just
graduated ninety-seventh in your class yesterday. That’s pretty good. Hell,
it’s better than I did.”

Kellie
found herself smiling. “Can I ask where you finished, sir?”

Tucker
shook his head. Archer grinned, and told her, “He was 210th out of
537.”

“Well
just think of it this way, Commander: You finished higher than 327 others,”
Kellie said.

At
this Tucker grinned. “What do you know about warp propulsion systems? You
trained in engineering, I presume.”

“Of
course, sir. There’s the matter/anti-matter reaction chamber, which is a part
of the matter/anti-matter reaction assembly. This includes the warp core,
plasma manifolds, induction coils, coolant system. The nacelles—which have
their own plasma flow to be maintained—are also a part of the warp drive
system…”

Tucker
held up a hand. “You’re good. You know all the parts. But do you know how they
work?”

“Trip,
Ensign Petersen did just graduate from Starfleet Academy. I think she
knows,” Captain Archer interrupted, his tone amused.

“But
this is your dad’s dream, Jonathan,” Tucker retorted. “You want just anyone
working on this engine?”

Archer
gave him a knowing look. “I’m letting you work on it, aren’t I?”

Tucker
looked at Kellie, mock hurt on his face. “Now that’s low. He’s just insulted
the guy he hired to be his chief engineer.”

Kellie
had to laugh. “You guys are funny,” she couldn’t help saying. “This will be a
fun place to work.”

The
friends shared a smile. “It won’t be all fun and games, Ensign,” said Archer.
“Our missions will take us out into regions of space humanity has never been
to. Possibly places no one’s ever been to. There’s an element of danger
inherent in that.”

She
nodded. “I understand, Captain. And I think I’m prepared for it, or at least as
prepared as I can be. But pushing to attend Starfleet Academy when I did, and
all the hard work I’ve put myself through the last four years, won’t amount to
much if I don’t get on a starship. This one or another, I’m going to do it.

“Besides,
you know what they say—boldly go where no one has gone before.”

Again
the captain and his engineer looked at one another. They appeared to
communicate with their eyes in the way only longtime friends could, conveying
much and saying nothing. Finally Archer stood. Tucker followed suit, and so did
Kellie.

“Well,”
Archer said. “We could certainly use that kind of enthusiasm on this crew.”

“Goodness
knows, we’re gonna need it,” added Tucker.

Kellie
smiled. “So…does this mean…?”

Archer
nodded, holding out his hand again. “Welcome aboard, Ensign Petersen. I’m
always on the lookout for the best and the brightest, and why let another ship
get you when we can use someone with your skills and determination on Enterprise?”

Her
smile grew, and while she thanked Captain Archer, shook hands with both him and
Commander Tucker again, inside she was trembling.

She
was going to be working with him: on the same ship, in the same room,
and possibly, at times, side by side.

I do not visit my Gmail account often enough, it seems, lol. Happy to see you managed to foray to my version of the Trek universe - which I will expand one of these days...

Anyhoo, glad you liked this little story. Kellie wasn't supposed to appear again after "Passings", which was written first but takes place after, but after I wrote that one, I felt like there should be something else to her so she didn't seem like a love-sick fool. Something to give the character a little more depth, I suppose. That's where this tale came from.